2018 Jewish Bulletin web banner 728×90

You are here:Home > Featured > Judge upholds sentence of mikvah-peeping rabbi

Judge upholds sentence of mikvah-peeping rabbi

By JTA: July 31, 2015

(JTA) – A judge upheld the six-and-a-half-year prison sentence of Rabbi Barry Freundel, the Washington rabbi who secretly videotaped dozens of women undressing in the mikvah.

The ruling Friday in a Washington, D.C. federal court came in response to Freundel’s appeal of the sentence levied in May after he pleaded guilty to 52 counts of voyeurism. His appeal argued that he should be sentenced for one, rather than 52, offenses. However, the judge on Friday said each victim should be acknowledged separately.

According to the Towson Patch, Freundel, 63, will continue serving his sentence in a federal prison. Previously, a judge granted his request to be transferred from a Washington, D.C. jail to a prison with religious rehabilitative programs.

The longtime rabbi of Kesher Israel, a prominent Orthodox congregation in Washington, Freundel was arrested last October on charges of voyeurism. Before his arrest, he was active in the Rabbinical Council of America, and was known for his expertise on conversion to Judaism.